VC Corner Q&A: Alex Menn of Begin Capital

Published in

Startup Grind

6 min readMar 24, 2021

Alex Menn started his career in private equity where he spent 12 years working on 45 M&A deals with a total volume of $3.5 bln with different European funds (Invest AG, Meinl Bank, Strategic Initiatives). After gaining sufficient expertise in investments, he becomes an active angel investor helping 13 promising early-stage projects to bolster their growth. In 2019, together with his partner — Ruslan Sarkisyan, he established the early-stage VC fund Begin Capital. Their management team invests from London with a focus on B2B SaaS, Marketplaces, FoodTech, ConsumerTech, and Artificial Intelligence.

Read on to learn more about Begin Capital and Alex Menn’s insights!

— What is Begin Capital’s mission?

Frankly speaking, our primary goal is to earn sufficient returns for our investors. Along with that, we are eager to help visionary entrepreneurs establish and develop truly robust and fast-growing companies out of which we would not like to exit. We believe that people are behind every revolution and we are looking for truly exceptional founders who are Pirates, Winners, and Robots.

— What was your very first investment? And what struck you about them?

My first angel investment was the UK-based B2B SaaS company called Mercaux which has later become a close partner of our fund as we have invested in them several times. For me, it is the most valuable case of investments that taught us how to help companies with international expansion and proper client relations. We have received not only an investment experience but also a deep insight into operational interaction with the founding team. Let alone the fact that we have found great friends :)

What struck me most about them is the fact that many B2B SaaS make great pitches and are looking truly nice integrating with merely any client. However, later on, a huge amount of time has to be spent to understand what ROI a client will receive. So, Mercaux is our best B2B SaaS type because its ROI is a clear client’s revenue increase. On the one hand, it brings digital to the conservative world of brick-and-mortar retail, on the other hand, it impacts sales with an enormously short timeframe.

— What is one thing you’re excited about right now?

I wouldn’t want to sound like a hypocrite boastfully reasoning about some hyped topics such as AI, space-traveling, or quantum computing. I feel like this is the place where I should put some extremely conscious and expectedly cool stuff, but I cannot resist revealing to you that I am excited the most about my wife Anastasia. She is freakishly awesome, and I think I’d better go give her a bunch of likes one more time :)

— Who is one founder we should watch?

I would definitely mention Praful Mehta, the founder of Vamstar. You probably do not know this name yet, but trust me, after a year you will be spamming our inbox with intro requests. He’s very close to solving the gargantuan medical B2B procurement problem worldwide. He is the best sales we have ever met.
P.S.: He is sitting next to me right now, and I truly do not want to spoil our relationships :)

— What are the 3 top qualities of every great leader?

1. Being able to gather and motivate people around you and persuade them that even the craziest ideas may come true. Every time when interacted with a great leader I was overcharged with confidence that I can do anything and inevitably reach success in my cause.
2. An ability to put the priorities of your team and your project above your own personal ego.
3. I believe that the grandeur is indivisible from the finesse. So every great leader should strive for impeccable excellence and exceptional craftsmanship in what he or she is doing.

— What is one question you ask yourself before investing in a company?

If the founders’ shares were traded on the stock exchange, would I buy them?

P.S.: I also ask myself how founders and our co-investors will act in case the investment is either extremely distressed or extremely successful?

— What is one thing every founder should ask themselves before walking into a meeting with a potential investor?

I am a big fan of storytelling. If I were a founder, I would ask myself what are things I should focus on during my pitch to get the maximum attention and concentration of investors?

— What do you think should be in a CEO’s top 3 company priorities?

1. Hire good people, fire bad people.
2. Preserve the spirit of entrepreneurship even if your startup is doing enormously well. I have seen many companies in stagnation because true patience was lost for the sake of bare operations management.
3. Always keep your promises.

— Favorite business book, blog, or podcast?

I hate business books because they lie (except for ones written by Ben Horowitz, I just trust him for some unknown reasons, he probably deserves it though). I have never ever encountered an author telling all the truth about the “path to success” by mentioning not only the glittering moments with chivalry vibes but the ones when someone has broken some promises or made their people work overtime. However, I am keen on classic literature and fiction. I believe that there are many more important lessons behind fictional characters. An author is unafraid to tell all the truth because he or she can just hide behind the characters’ backs.

— Who is one leader you admire?

It is certainly my father. His influence on me cannot be overstated. During his life, he has changed many professions and at each and every one of them, he has achieved colossal success. Being a Jewish boy in USSR he has not been accepted to any university because at this time there were a lot of restrictive quotas for people like him. However, it did not stop him from making an outstanding career in science, programming the first Soviet computer and beat the USA with it during the first computer chess world championship (by the way, I am strongly convinced that I would not be born in case he lost this competition). He has made several discoveries in the field of physics and then showed his entrepreneurial potential. Firstly, he has opened a chain of more than 100 DVD shops during the 1990s and then he has founded an international smart parking startup at the age of 72.

— What is one interesting thing most people won’t know about you?

My daughter’s name is Alexandra. But when I had picked up her documents from a maternity hospital, I had put the name Bat in her ID. I just thought that to name the girl Bat Menn would be a no-brainer “yes” for our family. My wife has revealed this fact only a year after and it appeared that she had a completely opposite opinion on that.

— What is one piece of advice you’d give every founder?

Build relationships with your parents. You will always receive the necessary charge of energy, warmth, and comfort from them in difficult times when everything goes wrong. And don’t forget to take things too seriously and laugh at least 15 minutes a day.

And the most important thing: send your startups to alex.menn@begincl.com (except for ICO projects, for them feel free to reach out via info@sequoiacap.com)